How to Write the Best Blog Post EVER

Some of the most common blogging advice is to write great posts. The problem is that few experts (if any) actually go into detail about how to actually write compelling and
interesting blog posts
. That ends today. Today, we are going to review the elements of great blog posts so you can use these traits to write the best blog post ever.

Part of writing amazing content is being willing to ignore previous assumptions of
blogging best practices
. Here are common blogging assumptions to ignore on your quest for the perfect blog post.

1. Length Matters
- The number of words in your blog post doesn't matter and is not a predictive indicator of the success of a piece of content. The truth is that people have been successful with all variations of blog post lengths.
Brian Solis
tends to write long, in-depth blog posts while
Seth Godin
usually sticks to very short posts. Both have been very successful, which helps demonstrate that length simply doesn't matter.

2. Comments Matter
- Maximizing the number of comments for a blog post should not be your goal. The goal of your business blog is to drive visits, leads, and customers. As
Dan Zarrella recently pointed out
, comments do not contribute to these important metrics on which a blog should be measured. Comments don't matter.

3. Perfection Matters
- Yes, grammar is important in a blog post. Yes, the idea must be conveyed clearly. However, perfection is the enemy of great business blogging. Being timely tops being perfect. Publishing content on time even if it is only very good and not perfect is
critical to great blogging
. Blogging is an iterative process. The more you blog, the better you understand your content and your audience. Perfection stops blogging progress and ultimately doesn't matter.

Now that we have outlined what
doesn't
matter, let's instead focus on the key characteristics that, when combined, make the best business blog post ever written.

7 Traits of Great Blog Posts

1. Actionable
- Whether they found the
blog post through a search engine
, an email, or a social network share, the core reason people click through to an article is to solve a problem. What makes people share a post with others is the actionable insight it provides to solve a problem. Provide clear takeaways and actionable steps in blog posts to ensure your idea resonates with readers.

2. Combined Relevance
- Metaphors are a timeless storytelling element. Don't leave metaphors to novelists. They should be an active part of blog posts. Comparing two seemingly different things and drawing connections between them is a valuable way to combine relevance and generate more intense interest in a subject.

3. Urgent
- Journalists write articles based on who, what, when, why, and how. As a blogger, answering the "why" isn't enough. Instead, it is critical to answer "why now?" The web is flooded with content. Content that is urgent and timely wins in the race for attention.

4. Visual
- Making a blog post visual doesn't mean filling it with images and videos (not that video and images aren't important in blog posts). However, they aren't the only ways to make a
blog post visual
. Use section headers, numbers, bullets, and other text elements to make it easy for readers to understand your idea quickly.

5. Solution-Based
- As we said earlier in this post, on the web, people are looking for solutions. Products aren't solutions. They are part of a solution. Don't cram a blog post full of product content. Instead, provide educational content that runs parallel to your product offering.

6. Entertaining
- Informative doesn't mean boring. Just because you sell sheet metal, doesn't mean your business blog can't also be entertaining. Have your shop crew make some fun and timely creations out of sheet metal and post an image or video of each new creation. Have someone outside your company review your blog post to check for entertainment.

7. Definitive
-
Great blog posts
aren't meek or subtle. They are clear, direct, and definitive. Take a stand, make strong word choices, and don't waver on your advice. Be
the
expert on your topic.

What? Another great post from Hubspot? Who could have known. Anyway thank you for this, great points to concentrate on. I wonder what the relevance of images within posts is. Is there any data on whether a post with a graphic will be more successful than one without? Thanks, Jon

Well said Kipp... agree. Re length of post also agree, provided that the content has been laid out in an easily digestible way. Often writers for the web are writing in a user unfriendly way. If writing a long post - do break it up - ensure there are headers, sub headers, bullet points. Short sentences and that paragraphs really don't run to more than 4/5 lines. If you make the content user friendly to read online - and you're writing in a compelling way - then length really isn't an issue.

In regards to length, one of my high school English teachers employed what she called the "mini-skirt rule," which was: make sure you have enough to cover the topic, but keep it short enough to stay interesting! More people should keep that in mind, or they will fall victim to the perils of tl;dr.

i believe an image to a post is very important in our ADD society. case in point, would anybody read about the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest? plus, it makes the post more intriguing to visually demonstrate what the post is regarding.

I, too, like Jim Wells' "mini-skirt rule!" I wrote it down to keep in mind/use it in the future. Excellent example of use of metaphor to create a visual (if a bit distracting!) image. Using pithy visual word pictures can really help audiences/readers remember your key points. Thanks Jim!

Love the mini! You guys might also appreciate Taylor Mali's poem, "The the Impotence of Proofreading" I agree about communication over perfection, but a good proofread never hurts. Here's the end of Mali's poem:

So do yourself a flavor and follow these two Pisces of advice: One: There is no prostitute for careful editing. And three: When it comes to proofreading, the red penis your friend.

When we read articles from great bloggers like you we get the real idea, but for some reasons you guys don't tell the readers that it will take time to grasp these tactics. Most guys advertise income from internet as passive source of income, may be thats why. Any way this article is very helpful.

When i publish my blog post, i will go to each and every social bookmarking websites like digg, reddit, facebook, twitter and still many more to just submit my post. It was very hard to get at least 25 backlinks for each of my post. after along time i have found a good backlinks submitting tool. that is only wire. this tool can create forty plus automatic free backlinks when you publish your new article in your blog or website. Hold on this tool lets you post free upto 300 submissions as on now..but if your are more porfessional then hope you need to go on their paid service which is upto 1000+ submissions.hit this link www(dot)onlywire(dot)com

I blog only on something i am passionate about because the rest can follow. Having a detailed plan on where you want to go is certainly very important but it all starts on blogging about something you love.

Hey you, yes you do take a look and comment at my blog about Internet Marketing: http://imarketingetrich.blogspot.com/ thanks (:

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